How Indian nationals are snapping up British buy-to-lets

TOI Correspondent from London: Indian nationals are the largest non-UK shareholders of buy-to-let companies in Britain this year, according to analysis by estate agency Hamptons .

Analysis of data by Hamptons shows that Indian investors are followed by Nigerians, Poles and Irish. Indians have made up the largest group since 2023; in 2022, they were the second-largest.

In the first half of this year, Indian nationals founded 684 new buy-to-let companies, with more registered in Hillingdon than in any other area. Nigerian investors follow closely with 647 new incorporations. This shift reflects wider post-Brexit migration patterns.

Buy-to-let companies are special-purpose companies set up to buy and manage residential rental properties.

EU nationals now account for 49% of non-UK shareholders, down from 65% in 2016. There has been a general fall in shareholders from the Anglosphere, too. In 2016, Irish, Americans, South Africans and Australians all featured in the top 10. By 2025, only Irish nationals remained, ranking fourth. Instead, Indian and Nigerian investors are stepping into the spotlight, despite rents falling this year for the first time in five years.

There were approximately 127,000 more Nigerian nationals and 178,000 more Indian nationals immigrating to the UK in 2023 compared with 2019, according to the Office of National Statistics .

Twenty per cent of buy-to-let companies set up in the UK so far this year are owned by non-UK national shareholders, up from 13% in 2016. The remaining 80% are owned by UK shareholders. Seven per cent of Indian nationals who own UK buy-to-let companies set up over the past decade live in India.

At current rates, around 67,000 new companies will be set up by the end of 2025, with around 13,500 owned, at least in part, by non-UK nationals. Companies are a more tax-efficient way of managing rental properties in Britain.

Whilst London has always been an attractive investment choice for foreign landlords, between 2016 and 2025 the share of new non-UK national landlords has more than doubled in the East Midlands, West Midlands and Scotland.

Aneisha Beveridge, head of research at Hamptons, said: “While overseas-based investors are part of the picture, the majority of purchases by non-UK nationals reflect domestic demand. Up until 2021, this demand was most likely to come from EU nationals based in the UK, but since then it has shifted to reflect changes in broader migration patterns. Indian and Nigerian nationals are increasingly likely to buy UK buy-to-let property in a limited company structure.”